It's Always Worth It
by Rosesqueak
Summary: Stein's psyhotic breakdowns are getting worse. Marie tries her best to take care of him, despite her failure to keep him sane. Soul Eater one shot.


Marie jumped and dropped the cup of tea she was holding, causing it to shatter on the floor. A loud crash had just come from Franken's office. She closed her eyes and sighed. She didn't know how much more of this she could take before she herself would go insane.

She walked to his office and placed a hand on the expecting to find a monkey with three legs, she slowly opened his door. The lights were out, and he was on his knees on the ground, his head hanging. A beaker that used to be full of something purple was in pieces all around him. A scalpel was gripped in his hand, and more blood than Marie was comfortable with stained his sleeves.

"Franken! Are you okay?!" She kneeled next to him and placed her hand on the side of his head. His shoulders started shaking while he made a sound that was almost like quiet crying, until she realized he was giggling.

_"Oh no. This is the second time this week."_

She very slowly reached for the scalpel. He didn't move as she pried it out of his hands and dropped it on the floor. Taking one of his hands, she and helped him stand up as gently as she could. Though he still hung his head, his giggling was getting a little louder. She guided him to the couch, trying not to fall over from his stumbling. As soon as he had dropped onto the couch, he threw his head back and laughed. As in entire body heaving laughed.

It was getting worse.

Marie tried to tune out the sounds of his cackling as she had done many times before, when she looked at Franken's sleeves again.

"_So that's where all of the blood came from." _

Forcing herself st step away from Stein, she went back into his office. The scalpel lay on the floor where she had left it. She was about to put it back into his drawer, but she hesitated.

"_How many times is he going to injure himself until he accidentally kills himself?"_

She knew he would probably get angry at her, but she took off the blade from the handle. Putting the handle into her pocket, she looked around for a place to hide the blade. Before she could even attempt to conceal it, Franken's laughs from the other room finally worked their way into her ears.

Each sound that came out of his throat felt like a punch to the stomach. She placed the blade in her pocket with the handle, gathering the strength to get up and go to the kitchen. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she started to walk past him, when he put his face into his hands, suddenly going quiet. A bit disturbed by this, she quickly took the bandages and towels out of the kitchen cabinet and rushed back to him. Sitting next to him on the couch, she put a shaking hand on his shoulder, using the other to slowly take the arm he had cut with the scalpel.

He was wide eyed, a huge grin plastered onto his face. It almost looked like he was terrified. Blinking back tears and trying to breath deeply, she rolled up his sleeve and cleaned off the cut with the towels, trying not to induce any further pain. Luckily, he didn't suddenly lash out or scream. He just breathed heavily through clenched teeth, still staring at the wall.

As she started unraveling the bandages, he started shaking and his face twitched uncontrollably. Marie fought sobs as she tried to focus on helping him get patched up, instead of how unstable he was getting. Suddenly, he shot out his hand to her's and squeezed it tightly. Surprised he didn't shatter her bones, she paused. He'd never done that before, and he wasn't letting go anytime soon. His expression didn't change a bit.

She felt her face twist into a tear inducing shape. She squeezed his hand back slightly, and proceeded to try and bandage his arm with one hand. It wasn't easy, especially while he was shaking so badly and she started to lose feeling in the hand he was clutching.

After accidentally dropping it, only being able to wrap it a few times before she had to start over, and a sudden jerk from Franken, she was finally able to tie off the bandage with her teeth. He had started to calm down, he wasn't shaking anymore, and he didn't have a ghastly smile on his face. Instead, his eyes were distant, hazy. He looked away at nothing, staring at and invisible void. He still held her hand tightly, but not to the point that she felt like it was going to break at any second.

She sat still on the couch for a little while, hoping that it would blow over soon. Spirit had told her that if Stein had gotten any worse, she should tell him right away. She knew that she couldn't avoid it this time. It used to be maybe once a month, but him having a breakdown twice in one week... It wasn't normal. She felt tears fall down her face as she acknowledged that he had, in fact gotten worse. She'd tried so hard to ignore it, to convince herself that she was over reacting, but this was unavoidable.

"Thank you, Marie."

She snapped her head around to look at him, his eyes were still looking into the distance and his grip was still tight. But he was talking again. He was over his breakdown

Small sobs escaped as she curled up against him. Immediately, she went from feeling exposed from sitting next to him, to feeling comforted by being close to him. He slowly pulled her into a hug. Marie wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his chest, embracing the wavelengths of his cracked, splintered soul.

In the end, the occasional breakdown wasn't always that bad. To Marie, it was worth it to make sure that he was always safe, and always loved


End file.
